August 12, (THEWILL) – The conspiracy against the $20 billion Dangote Refinery heightened on Saturday, when Nigerian investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, accused an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), ‘Dialogue Earth’, of offering him an N800,000 bribe to smear the 650,000 barrel per day petrochemical plant.
This is coming amid recent accusations by the management of the Dangote Refinery that international oil companies (IOCs), are working against its success.
Earlier, President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, expressed frustration over what he described as a gang up to sabotage the refinery project over an inability to secure crude from a local source.
In a post on his X account, Hundeyin detailed how the NGO reached out to him sometime last week, with a brief that required him to write a negative review about the Dangote Refinery using climate change and environmental concerns as justifications.
According to him, the NGO, formerly known as China Dialogue Trust, is based in London, United Kingdom, and headed by an Oxford professor, Sam Geall. He alleged that several American intelligence fronts, such as Ford Foundation and ClimateWorks – which is blacklisted in India for funding organisations working against India’s national interest, are financiers of the NGO.
Hundeyin wrote: “Last week, I received an N800,000 offer from an international NGO called Dialogue Earth (formerly known as China Dialogue Trust), to write an article, essentially saying that Dangote Refinery is terrible for the environment because something something “Environmental Concerns,” something something “Climate Change,” something something “Energy Transition Policy,” something something “COP 28”.
Hundeyin further claimed that although he could suspect the intention of the NGO after the initial contact, the investigative journalist played along to obtain hard evidence.
“The (unstated but clearly implied) thrust of the brief was for a prominent local voice to put their name on an article that is an argument or a premise for the Nigerian government to kill the refinery based on its “energy transition commitments” and “environmental policy. This conclusion wasn’t immediately apparent when they reached out to me, but I suspected where it was heading and I quickly accepted the offer so that I could see the brief and obtain hard evidence. I’ve attached screenshots from the brief below”, he stated.
The multi-billion dollar Dangote Refinery, was envisioned as Nigeria’s beacon of energy independence. The refinery could decrease West Africa’s dependence on imported fuel and improve fuel quality control.
THEWILL recalls that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in its June 2024 Oil Market Report, highlighted the significant impact that the Dangote Refinery is expected to have on Europe’s oil and gas market. OPEC listed the Refinery as one of the key suppliers of diesel and jet fuel that could disrupt Europe’s energy industry, particularly the Northwest Europe (NWE) gasoil sector. This development, OPEC said will boost the Nigerian economy.
The report revealed that Dangote Refinery, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has “upside potential for higher production levels from Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, coupled with strong flows from the Middle East and new supplies from the Mexican Olmeca refinery, will likely exert pressure on NWE gasoil performance in the mid-term.”
However, Hundeyin highlighted that the implied, though unstated objective of the NGO is part of the global campaign to smear what they described as “African first working refinery.” He said the objective was to create a pretext for the Nigerian government to potentially shut down or restrict the refinery’s operations, citing “energy transition commitments” and “environmental policy.”
He said he decided to expose the sordid plot to corroborate the argument that some American and European state and private interests are heavily invested in sabotaging the efforts to liberate the African continent from poverty.
“I’m putting this out there publicly so that nobody will henceforth use the term ‘conspiracy theory’ when it is pointed out for the umpteenth time, that there are American and European state and private interests that are heavily invested in keeping Africa exactly as poor as it is and that they regularly push levers most of us do not even know exist, to make sure that this status quo is protected.
“These people believe that Africans should not exist, or have nice things in this world. Apparently, the sole purpose of our existence is to enhance their experience of the planet and all that it has to offer.
“Basically, this London-based NGO is headed by Sam Geall, an Oxford professor and is funded by several American intelligence fronts such as Ford Foundation and ClimateWorks (which is blacklisted in India for funding organisations working against India’s national interest).
“For whatever reason, it is now quietly mobilising a resistance campaign against what it describes as “Nigeria’s first refinery.
“Apparently, the status quo of Africa’s largest oil producer having no functioning oil refinery to beneficiate its oil was not a problem for Dialogue Earth and the American CIA fronts who fund it”, Hundeyin alleged.
